DB8

Three reasons why I love today's CNN reporting on location-based mobile app usage in the US

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:38:35 -0400

Some context would help, so first go read the CNN article. And just to appease me, pour over the original research from Pew.

Now let’s pretend you did any of that. If you consider that—hey, put down your Droid, you can oust that “Mayor” in a moment. Sheesh…

ZERO mention of Facebook and Twitter. Yes, mainstream media is capable of reporting on a social media story that doesn’t reference either of the aforementioned, which is even better in this case as Facebook has Places and Twitter built its own geotag-amabob a few months before Facebook did. Reigning champ Foursquare and belt contender Gowalla just got some killer PR, as did rookie prospect SCVNGR.

No dreaded ‘P’ word: Privacy. Can we get through at least one social-media conversation cycle without the Big Brother buzzkill from angry mobs of advocates? For all his perceived flaws, Mark Zuckerberg was (mostly) right about “age-of-privacy-is-over” thing.

Simple arithmetic. Breaking down the numbers, the Pew study finds that roughly 12,425,000 Americans check into physical locations, some obsessively, via mobile location-based apps and other “geosocial” doohickeys. (Lord, do I love how we make up words.) Taking a 3 percent margin of error, that’s 21,744,000 on the upside and 3,106,000 if you really play it safe. But even 3 million Americans can’t be wrong, and that’s a large enough sample of consumers on-the-go to make any web-savvy marketer sing Cream in the shower.

Admittedly, I scoffed at this stuff when it first the scene. But here I am, 48 hours after U.S. midterm elections, just as proud of my ‘I Voted 2010’ badge as I am the fact I voted. And if that’s what it took to convince a few extra voters, may even swing a poll or two, then there just might be something those 4 percenters know that the rest of the 96 don’t.

Posted via email from Dino Baskovic Can’t Lose | Comment »

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